The playing XI-plus

Even before a game begins, Amar Sharma of Juliyasar village in Sikar, Rajasthan, is ready with his predictions. Watching a cricket match live, he simultaneously logs on to Matchup Cricket to enter his forecast for every ball and even the winner. From Virat Kohli hitting a century to Pakistan losing to India in the World Cup, or Dhoni scoring a six in the first over, Sharma is usually spot on. The app rewards him with free mobile recharges and even tablet computers, which are shipped through India Post. Not surprisingly, Sharma is hooked.

In Mumbai, Romil Shukla is the proud owner of a cricket team — AnRom Champs, the virtual team he created on Hitwicket, for which he buys players, decides the starting XI, designs a stadium and competes with other teams. Employed at an MNC Bank, Shukla spends at least three hours on the online game every day. He has started meeting other team-owners offline, creating a community of Hitwicket cricket managers.

Suraj Jain in Guwahati is using Chauka, a cricket-scoring app, to track every ball in Jain Premier League — a community cricket tournament. Besides keeping a ball-by-ball record of all 12 matches, the app also helps pick the star performer.

Interestingly, as matches below Ranji Trophy level are never recorded in India, Chauka offers a brand new way to preserve memories for players and viewers alike at these local matches.

A handful of entrepreneurs are innovating ways to cash in on the country’s obsession with cricket. They have customers from Churu in Rajasthan to Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh, and beyond the border in Bangladesh, Pakistan, the US, Germany and West Asia.

As Matchup Cricket founder Pratik Shah says, “We realised that while technology has grown, the experience of watching cricket has not changed over the years. Most people make predictions about a match and wait for them to come true. We felt it was a good way to engage with them.”

Match viewers make thousands of predictions for every ball played. “We give points for the right predictions and the top predictors get prizes,” Shah adds.

Like a boss

For Kashyap Reddy of Hitwicket, a cricket management game was a logical extension to what he had been doing as a student at the Vellore Institute of Technology — playing football management games. “IPL had already taken off. We were sure there would be a market for a similar online game, where users could own and manage a cricket team,” he says.

In 2012, he and his friend Rishav Rastogi were ready with Hitwicket, a multi-player cricket strategy game. As one of its oldest users, Shukla says, “Hitwicket is an uncomplicated game. It is also unlike any other cricket game in the market, as you don’t have to be totally engrossed. You create a team, and someone can play with your team even when you are offline.”

Hitwicket’s mobile app gives him updates about his team’s performances. Additionally, it offers him lessons for real life, he says. “You learn how to manage money, as there is virtual money used in buying team members and training them.”

Hitwicket works by using a proprietary match engine algorithm to compare the batting, bowling and fielding skills of players. Results are generated based on those probabilities. Each match is simulated ball by ball, accompanied by commentary. Next up is the India Cup at Hitwicket, with selected teams vying for it.

Around 25 Hitwicket users in Mumbai now meet regularly, as do many others in Pakistan and Bangladesh. A large chunk of the nearly 1.5 lakh registered users is in India, even as new users are rapidly swelling the numbers in countries such as the US, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Germany without any marketing effort.

Chauka’s scorecard is no different, generating 40 per cent of its revenues outside India without significant marketing efforts. It is the app of choice for recording match scores not only in India but also the US, West Asia, Pakistan, Nepal, Singapore, Japan and Germany. “Recently, someone from Uruguay contacted us for a tournament,” says Chauka founder Manoj Iragavarapu.

Be my scorekeeper

Iragavarapu’s business venture was certainly not happenstance. While studying for MBA at Spain’s IE Business School, he did market research on the cricket scorekeeping scenario in India and discovered that amateur players had no records. “Amateur cricketers too like to see their cricket statistics and cherish them later,” he reasons, adding, “We realised there was more communication over mobiles than over email in India. That’s where we figured out that a mobile app for ball-by-ball score would work.”

The app, which arrived free the first year, is generating revenues now. Tournament organisers pay to use it. It is available for an annual fee of ₹25,000, besides charges for a local match varying from ₹200 to ₹5,000 depending on location, match level, period of engagement and other factors.

Those unfamiliar with the app can utilise Chauka’s team of 50 scorers, who have been hired across India on a contract basis. “But the app is easy to use. Once you sit with the Chauka team and learn about it, you don’t need a scorer,” says Jain, an avid fan.

The app can be customised for variations in the rules of the game. “If you are organising a tournament with, say, eight balls in an over, then Chauka can customise the app accordingly,” says Jain.

After 15,000 downloads and scoring for 8,000 matches, the company has tied up with two major sports organisations in the US. As the official record-keeper for both these academies, generating robust revenues, Iragavarapu is looking at breaking even in 2015.

Hitwicket, which began charging for services a year ago, is hopeful of turning profitable in a few quarters. It offers a monthly subscription model, as well as packages for three, six or twelve months at ₹450, ₹675 and ₹1,100, respectively. The packages come with special features such as ad-free usage, says Reddy.

Cricketing bhasha

Matchup’s Shah, meanwhile, prefers to focus on India, especially its small towns, where cricket fever runs high.

“Cricket is a mass sport. Many of our users are from small towns, where it is impossible to courier prizes without India Post. There is a very latent need to entertain. So we launched the Hindi version early this year,” he says.

With 15 per cent of his subscribers already using Hindi, Shah has plans for other regional languages too. As for revenues, he is confident he can wait. “We have bootstrapped so far. But we are in talks with brands that want to advertise with us. Once that happens, revenues will start coming in. Currently, our focus is on popularising the game,” he adds.

His strategy is to popularise Matchup as the second screen for engagement, as most people have limited attention span and cannot remain glued to the TV for the full duration of a match. “They want to interact with something. And that’s where Matchup fits well,” he says.

Within six months of going live, Matchup Cricket has garnered more than five million predictions. During the India-Pak match on February 15, the site got more than one lakh predictions. “People are spending three to four hours continuously on Matchup while watching cricket on TV. The average session time is 25 minutes, which is big on mobile,” says Shah.

The cricket-based start-ups are hiring more developers and marketers as their user base is increasing at the blistering pace with which a Dhoni or Kohli or Dhawan piles up a century.

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